O.G. Original Gangster

Enjoyed this. Probably somewhat shocking back in '91

I think Ice T's rapping and message are not exactly consistent throughout the album, but its simple-yet-effective beats keep the album engaging.

Not for me; too much profanity

My god, O.G. Original Gangster was so bad. It's a shame that it's as bad as it is because i remember liking a song by his band Body Count called Carnivore back in high school. Unfortunately, this album does not carry that same quality. The production is okay for the most part with some good moments but other than that, it's not worth talking about. However, what is worth talking about is the lyrics and just how much they suck. Almost all the lyrics on offer are just Ice stroking his ego and talking about how he gets bitches and all that. And don't get me started on the skits because one of them is literally just a woman further stroking his ego. This album represents so much of what i don't like about rap music. A guy just stroking his ego and saying how great he is just isn't enjoyable to listen to at all. Not even The Tower is able to save this from a 1 Best Song: The Tower Worst Song: First Impression

Less bangers than his other albums, and overly bulked out with short, forgettable tracks and skits.

Peak My dad has this on vinyl so that’s how I listened to it

Beetje saaie rap-muziek, maar ik stoor me er ook niet heel erg aan dus alsnog 2 sterren. **

You know for the guy who talks about how good at rapping he is. He is pretty bad. Now before anyone comes for me, I don't care if this was influential on ganster rap. Its udder shite and shouldn't even bee consumed for historical value. Let Run DMC, LL Cool Jay, and the other B boys rule the genre for the 80s. Please stop keeping this guy famous

It's a bit long, but I like it. Definitely not in my wheelhouse, but I know I heard some of these songs in the 90s when I was growing up. Midnight is a stand-out track to me.

Listening while cooking and thought there were only a few tracks left when someone on the record said "we're halfway through".. so yeah, it's about 20 minutes too long. That being said, if you like classic gangsta rap, this certainly fits the bill. Hard beats and solid storytelling and rhyming. 3.5/5.

Interesting Ice T doesn't necessarily have huge mega hits. Not for me.

Couldn't be made today (2026) but I liked it

I grew up watching Yo! MTV Raps, and I have nostalgia for this era of hip-hop. I like this album, but I'm afraid Ice-T has been ruined for me forever. The whole time I'm listening to this record, all I'm thinking about is the John Mulaney bit about Ice and his Law & Order: SVU character. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!

pretty good!

Ok - I did enjoy New Jack Hustler. Some of the beats were great (I hear some old school Funkadelic samples cropping up) but I'm not super impressed overall. Cut out the minute long skit stuff and the rapping is fine. Similar to LL Cool J...

if i had to listen to gangsta rap forcibly, i'd be happy to at least listen to this album. it's still gangsta rap, but it has moderately good lyrics and reasonably good samples/music. still basically garbage gorilla bragging, but hey... live and let live...

I am not a huge fan of the older rap where they just say a bunch of stuff, but instead I like the more melodic songs from maybe early 2000s. This is why I didn't really enjoy this album because it was just a bit meh with a looping soundtrack in the back and ICE-T just saying things here and there. I do know that this is the album that cemented the term Original Gangster for OG, but it's just not really for me. There are a couple of songs that are alright as background listens.

OG rap from the 80-90s.

Starta tynt for meg, men tok seg bra opp. Enkelte som smeller, men er en del listefyll. Body Count trekkern bra opp ass!

Hugely influential but could've been halved and still got the point across. Skits still horrible. 4/5

Álbum de Rap dos anos 90. Mais de 1 hora de duração. A voz de Ice T é legal, alguns flows bons, batidas decentes… Mas tudo é muito cansativo. Mais do mesmo, já sinto uma exaustão imensa de quase tudo feito nesse gênero nessa década. E sinto que ainda há muito mais como isso aqui na lista. Meu maior problema é o conteúdo lírico. São letras cansativas e clichês. Passo. 2/5

Solid gangsta rap album. The random rock song was pretty cool too.

Who doesn't love Ice?

Not my thing but not a bad thing

That guy from Law and order? yeah yeah, the jokes been done to death i know. This album absolutely is a product of its time and does have an impact on creating arguably the most important era of hip hop in its commercial state, despite the fact that this album is anything but commercial. That said, this album did get kinda old after about 30-40 minutes in, but its highs were really good, and plants itself as an essential gangster rap album. 3/5

It really annoys me when artists do this. There is clearly a very clear vision as to what this album was meant to be, and a very clear intention for how it is used as social commentary. And yet, it has been padded out to well over an hour mostly with complete fluff. It had real potential, the rapping, the beats, the lyrics, all very strong elements here. But this album could easily have achieved everything just as well being like 40 minutes. I'm not in any way against long albums, hell, my two favourite albums of all time are 1 hour 27 minutes and 2 hours 20 minutes. But to justify your album being that long, there needs to be a good reason. And this just doesn't have any good reason for its length, just an average hip hop album that's twice as long as it needs to be.

I'm done with this genre. So sick of gangsta rap and all of the violence, misogyny, and bullshit that goes along with it. I enjoyed some of the beats on this and the Body Count song. But, otherwise, just more of the same. It's boring and one-dimensional as hell.

On the one hand, Ice T does not have much of anything interesting to say on this. The fact that he's from South Central LA will be forever seared on my brain because he mentions it about 400 times. On the other hand some of these songs slap. Don't usually love rap rock but it really suits his style on Body Count. I also like songs like Midnight and The Tower with its Halloween theme sample. A mixed bag and the second half is a lot stronger than the first

Honestly, this was better than I was expecting it to be. Probably a little over long, but the shorter songs and skits did well to pad the album out and not make it overstay its welcome too much.

I’d never heard Ice T’s music. Pretty good.

Some shine through and the punk stuff is fun. This is a hard follow to a Tribe Called Quest album. The production is pretty grating at times and not in a good way.

Genuinely a fun listen. Sometimes tacky, but still fun.

Way too long. It all started to sound the same after a while, with the exception of Body Count which was essentially a rock song. I suppose lyrically it makes a statement (my husband mentioned something about Ice-T rapping about the CIA and the crack epidemic on this album) but this is not really my jam. DNF. (2)

Still just not a fan of this genre and the fact every album seems to need to be so long and use so much language.

Maybe I would like gangster rap more if I lived back then or was associated with a gang

Gangsta rap is the most bs, overrated, misogynistic, arrogant, self-centered crap I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

1-way too long 2-uses all the cliches way too much 3-overuse of too many phrases & words

Way too long and repetitive. If it were twenty to thirty minutes shorter I’d probably give it a 2, but it just kept going so it drops down to a 1. Not my favorite style of rap, either.

I like it particularly body Count which was an interesting cross over track

Hey-Ho. Another rap album! Was not expecting anything out of the ordinary. However, this is a triumph - extremely listenable.

not my thing

Ja dit is ooooooldschool hiphop. Zonder te kijken bij de reviews weet ik de strekking al: Veel gescheld, weinig variatie, vrouwonvriendelijk. Allemaal waar, maar dit is echt het begin van gangsta rap. Moet zeggen dat Ice T voor mij wel echt hard is ingehaald door de tijd, het is echt verouderd qua beats en vooral qua onderwerpen enzo. Doet ook erg denken aan vroege NWA. Maar Ice maakt een hoop goed met zn flow en wordplay, die is gewoon echt heel sterk. Hij wisselt veel van flow en daarnaast neemt hij je wel mee in zn leven. Het is rauw en het is hard. Nooit gedacht dit te zeggen trouwens; maar de skits op dit album zijn daadwerkelijk grappig. Ze getuigen van humor en vooral; Ice die zichzelf niet te serieus neemt. Maar teeeering, 72 minuten in totaal. Dit album duurt en duurt. Ik vind Ice T echt geen vervelende rapper, heb best wat opgeslagen van dit album ook, maar ik ben murw gerapt. Er zit te weinig variatie op het album verder om mijn aandacht vast te houden en ook de persoonlijkheid van Ice T houdt niet het hele album de aandacht vast. FAVO: Mic Contract, New Jack hustler(Nino's theme), O.G. Original Gangster,

There were some tracks on here that had so many N bombs it made me uncomfortable. I liked his monologue about how ‘music is music and why would you only listen to 1 type’. That’s really all that saved it for me.

it's hard to view him as not the Law and Order guy, it's a solid enough album Will I listen to again: 20%

ive heard this album, it was mid, and i dont really feel like relistening. 5.5 because i have a couple songs liked

I have a soft-spot for this as the rap of my youth - absolutely ridiculous though.

Day 42 The lady on First Impression says everything Fav track: Midnight

Bodycount's in the house

I think this one was a lot longer than it needed to be. I believe this was mostly predictable and had all the clichés of gangsta rap. The rhymes and lyrics tend to be quite cheesy especially when a lot of it is put over a mid-school hip-hop beat. There were some songs I liked but it's nothing that is crazy or something I'd want to return to in the future. Highlight Song/s: "Ziplock" and "O.G. Original Gangster"

Woof that one was too long with not enough stylistic variation for me. 90s boom bap beats like this can only stay fresh for me for so long

72mins? Why can't rappers produce a tight 40min album? First Impression was hilarious. The rest was mid but its getting hit for being too long and rapping to the Halloween theme is cringe. 2/5.

This was fire when it came out, but then Ice T went and became a TV cop.

Usually, I am very much a West Coast Best Coast believer. But in the case of hip hop? East coast >>> west coast.

90’s rap, fast beats and raps. This one’s ok but not really for me

Pretty lengthy for me, though gave me some giggles with my favorite being the "antidisestablishmentarianism" bit

Not my cup of tea

It’s so funny to listen to this album with the context of Ice T being a main character on Law and Order: SVU for 25+ years.

1. 3.5 2. 3 3. 4 4. 3 5. 3.5 6. 4.5 7. 3.5 8. 4 9. 4.5 10. 4 11. 3.5 12. 3 13. 3 14. 4 15. 4 16. 3 17. 3 18. 2.5 19. 3 20. 4 21. 3 22. 3 23. 3.5 24. 3.5

I was surprised by how good this album was, this has help up well.

Hard charging West Coast rap.

I always dismissed Ice-T as the guy from Law and Order SVU. However, this is class, a masterclass in street journalism, the reality of Compton and political cynicism. I can't believe I've never listened to it, a classic. It sounds like a David Simon book reads only with more mysogany and bravado. Could do with being a few tracks shorter

Pues otro más en la línea del que escuché justo antes de Limp Bizkit. En este caso es más rap que rock, pero hay mezcla. Me guardo: Mic contract, New Jack hustler, O.G. Original Gangster, Midnight, Body count y The Tower.

Hahahahaha Love Ice T Not a big fan of his music

3.5 No really single standout tracks here, but I really dig this as a whole. Ice T obviously got saddled with the “gangsta rap” moniker, something he was honestly fine with, but the songs here, while talking about “gangsta” cliches, also often interrogate the bigger picture - societal, systemic issues baked into the United States. He hates cops, he hates prison, he talks about economic inequality and the bullshit of endless wars. Often eloquent, often audacious, at times surprisingly deep and funny.

Raríssimo álbum de Rap com conteúdo musical: guitarras, metais, baterias, composições estruturadas e melodias interessantes. Um disco diferenciado em relação ao universo repetitivo e sem inspiração do Rap.

Did this album make the list because it has the most n words?

It's no Body Count but it's not bad. Solid middle of the road rap album.

real OG

A bit meandering and a touch too long, but pretty slamming overall. Interesting how Ice's flow seems to get more interesting a few tunes in - possibly symptomatic of this record being made in a fairly transitional period for hip hop.

Some not so bad stuff on here but just so long and aggressive. Couldn't finish it

It's very funny... Ice T I don't know if it's intentional... Ice T However, there is some really meaningful commentary... Ice T It's just not my kind of music... Ice T

I’m not a huge fan of gangster rap, and this album didn’t exactly change my opinion. Ice T leans into the style of the time, though I do not know his life story so can’t say how much of it reflects his actual life. The beats were solid at times and kinda boring at others. The flow was solid for the era, but kinda lazy compared to today.

Listened before? No Familiar with the artist? Yes, but unfortunately more for Law and Order than for the music 🙃 Thoughts: - I was a bit worried after the first track, but by the time I got into the 'meat' of the album I was having a great time. Surprisingly funny, too. - Rap is still largely new to me, but between this, the Beastie Boys album a couple of weeks ago, and what I know from A Tribe Called Quest, I think the 90s will be my favorite time for it. Favorite track(s): Mind Over Matter, Body Count Least favorite: I could do without the skits and the acknowledgement section as a song (M.V.P.s)

Too many skits and songs that were just lists of things. Edgy at the time, cringe now.

Kohati naljakas album hea flow-ga, aga see kestab liiga kaua ning produ on kahtlase kvaliteediga üle terve albumi. Pole ühtegi selget bängerit. 2.9/5

I remember Ice T's influence on the rappers of my childhood but I know him mostly as the Law and Order guy. It was really fun to see him in his prime.

Damn son, this fucking slaps. Yeah it's long, but it's overflowing with ideas, brio, rage and swagger. Ice T mightn't have been the most groundbreaking, influential or talented of the OG gangsta rappers, but he could be the most tenacious and ambitious. He absolutely swings for the fences here and doesn't hold back, it's super cool to hear.

I am actually editing my review because I rated it after only 3 songs, thinking I was smarter than I am. I originally judged the first few songs because Ice-T was seemingly just copying Ice Cube's flow, and I still think that is true on most of this album. However, some of these songs show really novel introspection, and the short skits are some of the better ones from this era. Bumping this up from a 1 to a 2 because it is too long

You know, I get the sense that Ice T does not actually know that to be antidisestablishmentarianist, is to, in fact, support the current establishment... (I know technically it means to believe that the Church of England should remain the official Church of the state in contrast to the disestablishmentariansits, but that hasn't been a live issue for centuries.) 1.5 stars rounding up because of that sick flow though.

Really mixed bag. When it's good, it's great. When it's bad, it's awful.

"O.G. Original Gangster" is a well-produced album - so much so that it lacks grit and a certain sense of danger, rendering the overall experience predictable. Rather than a ground-breaking innovation, the record feels more like a refined consolidation of established gangsta rap tropes. 'Straight Up Nigga' stands out as a clear low point; intended to shock, its sonic polish completely neuters its impact. There is nothing raw or ugly on this album, and there really ought to be. As a result, I simply don't believe Ice-T when he claims to be the 'Original Gangster'. A track like 'Midnight' should feel far more menacing than it does, which is ironic given that it samples 'Black Sabbath' by Black Sabbath - a piece of music that is genuinely scary, ominous, and foreboding. An album covering this subject matter needed a production job akin to what Chris Thomas achieved for the Sex Pistols on "Never Mind the Bollocks (Here's The Sex Pistols)": massive, heavy, and clear, but without stripping away the rough, dangerous edges. I started to lose interest after ten tracks, which brings me to my final point - "O.G. Original Gangster" is yet another rap record that is far too long. My track-by-track scores reflect this fatigue. The songs aren't necessarily poor; I simply grew indifferent to them as the runtime dragged on. Ultimately, there is nothing original here. There are occasional flashes of humour that reveal a degree of self-awareness, saving the project from becoming a complete caricature. However, at no point does "O.G. Original Gangster" serve up anything that would make it an essential album for me. Two stars. 1 "Home of the Bodybag" (3/5) 2 "First Impression" (2/5) 3 "Ziplock" (3/5) 4 "Mic Contract" (3/5) 5 "Mind Over Matter" (2/5) 6 "New Jack Hustler (Nino's Theme)" (3/5) 7 "Ed" (2/5) 8 "Bitches 2" (2/5) 9 "Straight Up Nigga" (1/5) 10 "O.G. Original Gangster" (2/5) 11 "The House" (2/5) 12 "Evil E - What About Sex?" (2/5) 13 "Fly By" (3/5) 14 "Midnight" (3/5) 15 "Fried Chicken" (2/5) 16 "M.V.P.s" (2/5) 17 "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous" (3/5) 18 "Body Count" (3/5) 19 "Prepared to Die" (2/5) 20 "Escape from the Killing Fields" (2/5) 21 "Street Killer" (2/5) 22 "Pulse of the Rhyme" (2/5) 23 "The Tower" (2/5) 24 "Ya Shoulda Killed Me Last Year" (2/5) Total - 55 Average - 2.3 419/1001 220/419 albums reviewed were new to me.

He’s charismatic. I liked it. Sounds loud and dated but that’s charming. I like that he kept shouting 1991. Ultimately bumped up to 4 stars because of the hardcore/metal elements, and his confrontational rant at the end.

Honestly this was fun. Ice T is an interesting guy. I definitely know him more from TV, so this felt like a good crash course in his rap career. I dug the lyrics and flow. The critic skit made me laugh.

This album gets a lot better in tracks 18 - 24. The skits are horrible, but I guess you just have to accept that it's a rap thing to include them. Rarely are they good. Not sure it's aged amazingly, but solid overall.

# Album Name: O.G. Original Gangster # Artist: Ice T # Rating: 1/5 # Comments: Not for me. Way too long and way too many tracks. # Top Tunes: # Would I listen to it again? No

3.0

No private session used for Spotify. I liked this, but with a lot these records I can't put in on rotation because of the heavy use of the N word, I know it wasn't made for me.

ngl i kinda feel like a dipshit for not checking out more of ice t music before this. like i kinda just knew him as "that one 90s rapper that got really into gears of war" and never investigated further but damn... this album is good as hell! the thing that caught me most off guard is how good these beats are, im especially a fan of "midnight" with those black sabbath samples slowed way down til it sounds like the track came pre-chopped & screwed, and "the tower", which somehow turns a sample of the goofy ass halloween theme into a serious damn beat. but then also like, there's just a straight up metal track on here? and it fucks? and the themes and lyrics is great too, and way more progressive than i expected.... like idk i never thought i'd hear anti-homophobic sentiment in early 90s gangsta rap but this album did it twice. ice t was moving like 2 deacdes into the future on this one for real. i was on the fence as to whether this was a 4 or 5 but like i think the skits just barely push it over the line for me. stopping the album halfway thru for a bit where some guy begs for a track about sex is so advanced. what the fuck ever man. awesome.

Femma 1991

This album hasn't aged well.

Solid 4 star album. I like the choice of samples used but wanted a little more complexity or creativity in the overall production. Ice-T’s rhymes and delivery is everything I expect from an early 90’s hip hop album. A lot of good songs and fun moments but definitely some fluff. 2 intro tracks before the actual first song is wild.

I was a young rap fan in 1991. I saw Ice-T in concert that year. I remembered this being really good. It's not. It's really lame rapping and beats.

Love this old school LA rap

It's a little dated and too long, but also some great stuff on here. Ice T's rapping was solid, some inventive and creative musical choices even if the subject matter isn't.

Why did noone tell me Ice T was hard

Jag tänkte att om jag lyckas ta mig igenom hela så kan det väl få en tvåa. Jag höll ut länge ändå, men till slut måste man dra en gräns för vad man mäktar med

Över förväntan alltså! Solklar trea

Charmad av ice-t ändå, OG:n som blev CSI-Gunvald. Oväntat najs med black sabbath-samplingen i midnight och riktigt härligt med fred wesleys dr funkenstein-trombon i bitches 2-verserna. Fint att han är så bjuckig mot alla sina kollegor i ”m.v.p” också, charmigt att va gangsta men ointresserad av beefs. Kul, landar i rätt stark 3a

Lite boomerrap kanske men fett

allegedly "the best" ice-t album 🤔 sounds an awful lot like public enemy fear of a black planet to me body count song is interesting(?) interlude dig the halloween sample for the tower otherwise, album goes hard, guy knows his issues i guess 💥new jack hustler (nino's theme)